Producing Timber and other Forest Products from your Native Forests and Woodlands

Private land is critical to the timber industry, with more than 50% of the hardwood and 25% of the Cypress processed in Queensland currently coming from freehold land.

It is estimated that approximately 2.1 Million hectares of ‘commercial’ hardwood and 500,000 hectares of cypress native forests and woodlands occur in Southern and Central Queensland on freehold land.  These native forest and woodlands are mainly on ‘remnant’ areas (mapped coloured – red, pink, orange, brown or green on a vegetation map) but significant areas also occur on non remnant areas (mapped white).

Areas not traditionally considered ‘commercial’ forests and woodlands can still produce forest products.

The area of ‘commercial’ native forests and woodlands in North Queensland is unknown but it is important to the local timber industry and as for landholders in Southern and Central Queensland provides great opportunity to landholders to diversify their property income streams.

Research conducted by AgForests in 2005 and 2006 showed that a large proportion of private native forests and woodlands in Queensland are under-producing timber because they are too thick i.e. there are too may trees.  As a guide here is the suggested total number of trees per hectare producers should aim to manage to provide the best productivity.

Queensland's forests and woodlands forest practice Total trees per hectare required
‘Dry’ eucalypt dominated forest and woodlands 100 to 200
‘Wet’ eucalypt dominated forest and woodlands 250 to 400
Cypress dominated forest and woodlands 250 to 350
Outback woodlands (Mulga, Gidgee, etc) 250 to 400


AgForests has produced three management guides (dry forests, wet forests and cypress forests) to assist producers and industry to better understand how to sustainably produce more timber, and/or maintain productivity from your private native forests and woodlands.  As a guide Spotted gum/Ironbark or Blue gum forests are classified as ‘dry eucalypt forests and woodlands’ – check the front cover of each guide to ensure you have the correct guide for your forest or woodland type.

For information on managing rainforests in Queensland refer to:

Limited information is available on managing Outback woodlands (Mulga, Gidgee, etc) for sustainable timber production however it has similarities to managing dry eucalypt and Cypress forests and woodlands.  The following links to a  report that also provides some information:

Because many private native forests and woodlands are also grazed, it is extremely important that producers understand how to manage these areas for grazing combined with timber production. The Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries has produced information that assists producers understand how to get the right balance between trees and pasture.  A recent document that provides producers with a good basic understanding of this is: